The Tomorrow War is a recent sci-fi film released last month and produced by David Ellision, who is famous for its action packed movie and Hollywood action series. It is also directed by Chris Mckay who is known for its great visual effects movies. Add Chriss Pratt, an actor known for his heroic role in the marvel series, guardian of the galaxy into the the duo and you can easily guess what will be in the movie.

The Tomorrow War attempts to bring a mixture of military science-fiction, action, and a bit of drama into the screen. Upon its release, this movie received mixed reviews and criticism. Even on hive, you can take a look at the review written by @jcrodriguez No Sudden Move & The Tomorrow War / TWO FILM REVIEW [Eng - Esp] and the comment below it. And that is no different from the reviews outside, especially from rotten tomatoes, and major film critics. So, upon watching this movie, I was not expecting too much from it.

No High Expectations

I found this movie when I was trying to search with the keyword “ latest release”. There were two other movies that I wanted to watch, Ready Player One but I ended up choosing this latest one, The Tomorrow War. Having read a bit of reviews and also the rate from rotten tomatoes, I did not have any high expectations and thought this was just another high-budget action movie.

Just Another high-budget action movie

Perhaps I am not entirely wrong, upon the first scene, it shows a get together at Dan Forester (Chris Pratt)’s house with his family and colleagues. They were watching a soccer match and suddenly, it was interrupted with a blasting hole spewing soldiers, allegedly from the future. At this point, I thought that they were aliens. Turns out, they were human from the future carrying a message to warn others about human future war. Fast forward, there was a mandatory draft for people above 30 to be sent into the future and Dan Forester was called to be drafted. At this point, Emmy (Betty Gilpin) , who works with the draft survivor, was against the idea of him being drafted. During their talk, Emmy mentioned that the survival rate was low and those who came back would come with PTSD and even disabled. Later in the movie, we will know why many of these draftees weren’t able to come back to 2022, which is the present time in the movie.

In an attempt to avoid being drafted, Forester went to his estranged father who could help him circumvent the time machine. But later, due to their unresolved past problem, Forester rejected the idea and went back to the military camp. Without knowing what he was going to face, he went to the future. His mission was to rescue the researcher who was trapped in the lab facility containing research about toxins that could save humanity from the war with the alien. However, the researchers were already killed by whitespikes and the area was overrun by them. After having some gunfight, Forester and some of the survivors were transported again and they woke up in a military encampment in the Dominican Republic.

In this military encampment, he meets old Mauri, Forester's daughter. She is now a colonel and also a lead researcher for the toxin to eradicate the alien. This is where a bit of drama is injected into the movie. Mauri was cold towards her father and Forester was a bit puzzled. This was another odd plot in the movie that I think shouldn’t be there. Apparently, they weren’t on good terms a few years after their present time where several years later he would be dead due to a car crash. Unlike many of Chriss Pratt movies where he would have some romance with the female lead, in this movie, the relationship was between a father and a daughter. They spent together a while in the military encampment while old Mauri attempted to catch the female whitespike.

Shortly, after some gunfight and cool film effects, the both managed to capture the female whitespike and finally found the toxin that could eradicate the whitespike. However, when the female whitespike shriek, the base with jumplik device, a time travel machine was overrun by whitespike. The expensive cool effects and work was shown during this scene as well. Other than the cool effects, this movie is actually doing a good job with creating anticipation. When I was watching this movie, I was a bit anxious about what's to come. Though, there were some predictable scenes where I knew that there would be whitespike around and the plan would be sabotaged.

After the Mauri sacrifice, Forester was sent back to the present time, 2023 with the toxin. He wanted it to be mass produced but due the jumplink that was destroyed, everyone lost hope that they could win the future war. Forester wanting to keep the promise to his daughter, he was thinking about the origin of the alien. He and his wife deduced that the alien was already here on earth because they found no evidence of spaceship as per Forester information. So, they were trying to find out, with the toxin that was extracted from the female whitespike.

With the information from a highschool student who was enthusiastic about volcanoes, it was found that the aliens had arrived in the year 946 during the great eruption and that they were located in the Russian Arctic. Despite Forester's attempt to convince the government to send the troops to find the origin of the alien, the government was reluctant. So, he asked his father, a war veteran who could fly planes and also good with weaponry to take Forester and some of his former colleagues during the mission to find the buried alien.

After arriving in the Russian Arctic, they found an underground cargo spaceship carrying whitespikes. Forester mentioned that they could be cattle from another alien or even bio-weapon. They injected some of the whitespike with the toxin that led them to be awake and shriek. The whitespike shriek, caused other whitespikes to be awake and started to almost overrun the old spaceship. Then, one of the people in the team, carrying C4 blew up the cargo ship. However, the female whitespike managed to escape.

Forester’s father and also one of the other team along with forester, hunt down the female whitespike. Through a fierce battle, they finally kill the female whitespike and save the world. However, during this battle Forester was injured by the spike from the whitespike but he was fine at the end scene. This is where I don’t understand because after contact with an alien, there should be contamination or something. I also dislike the part where the government was taking the credit from the Forester and the teams. Perhaps that part was showing that the government loves to take the good credit even though they have done little to nothing to save the world. They just want others to praise them despite not doing the hard work that was involved to save the world.

This led me to wonder with some questions in mind, how come Forester was alright even when he got injured with the spike from an alien creature? I suppose, there would be some reaction and the wound would have some alien mark on it. According to wikipedia, A sequel is in development. and I wonder what the premise would be. So far, all I can think about is 1) they will focus on the information gathered from the toxin and create another jumplink, 2) they will try to find another alien cargo ship and try to destroy it, 3) they will use the toxin as a biomass weapon. Despite the relatively mediocre rating from others, I quite enjoy the movie.

The overall effect was something expected from Hollywood action level budgets. Moreover, this movie is something to watch just to pass your time. If you are a fan of Chris Pratt, then this is another movie that you should also watch. Other than that, I don’t know a good reason to watch this film.

The Tomorrow War is doing an OK job with the attempt to break character and characterization stereotype

When I apply my literature study into this movie, I think this movie is doing a great job in casting roles for the characters. It is giving roles to women in leadership positions and showing black characters in science since normally in Hollywood movies in the past, this character was played by asian or white cast. As there were some stereotypes on the characterization for someone in science. And this movie was doing an okay job to break this stereotyping. I could go on and on about this but I think that’s enough for just a basic starter to this conversation.

This was also a movie in 2021 that I watched without carrying the virus theme. Though in reality since the setting was 2022, they should have still used masks or even given a brief explanation at the current pandemic situation or something. Perhaps, the movie was trying to be a bit hopeful that by 2022, the pandemic is over. Unfortunately though, based on this movie, there will be another war to come, not with the virus again but with creatures hidden beneath the arctic that was waiting to be awakened.

	Mac is a content creator that covers literature, books, technology, philosophy, nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than those, she is passionate about cooking and travel. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things.